TTG Features Air travel
Faremine takes off for 2012
Business is booming for Faremine. Katherine Lawrey chats to sales director Phil Pritchard to find out why
million mark in January – and parent company the Gazelle Group is predicting 23% growth year-on-year when its results are released in June. Company headquarters are in
F
Bradford, and Faremine has recently opened a second office in Chester. Phil Pritchard, sales director, says:
“We are investing in recruiting some genuine experts in the field. We’ve expanded our workforce by 30% in the past three months. Faremine is still small enough to provide a personal service to agents but also big enough to offer really competitive fares from our exclusive net contracts.” Technology is another focus of
investment for Faremine, with various tailored options available to agents, such as XML feeds, white label websites and global distribution systems. “One of our strengths is that
TOP 10 SEARCHES
through the Faremine website so far this year...
1 Bangkok, Thailand 2 Dubai, UAE 3 Las Vegas, USA 4 Manila, Philippines 5 Hong Kong 6 Nairobi, Kenya 7 Singapore 8 Johannesburg, South Africa 9 Colombo, Sri Lanka 10 Perth, Australia
42 05.04.2012
light consolidator Faremine enjoyed a record-breaking start to the year – Emirates sales alone topped the £1
A recent example is Faremine’s new destination search, which enables agents to compare the consolidator’s best 200 published, seat-only and IT fares. Most-searched for airlines include Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Qatar, and the top-searched destinations since the start of 2012 are Bangkok, Dubai and Las Vegas. Pritchard adds: “Our most popular
searches are for airlines that combine special deals with good availability.” New contracts include Vietnam Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and Royal Brunei Airlines. Last year, Faremine underwent a
Pritchard: unique and fun tone for agents
we are multi-GDS. We support Sabre, Amadeus and Galileo, and we work with a range of technology providers,” says Pritchard. “We need to make sure that agents can access our fares anyway they choose – and we are working on new products with existing technology partners to enable agents to do that more efficiently.”
rebrand. Pritchard explains: “We’ve developed a unique and fun tone of voice for our marketing campaigns to engage and retain agents.” And as part of that fun drive, agents benefit from regular rewards and incentives. This April agents will receive a £5 Love2Shop voucher for every passenger booked on Emirates. And in Easter-themed giveaways, all bookings made in April will be entered into the Easter bonnet to win a giant chocolate Ostrich egg, and all new registrations on Faremine will receive a fluffy bunny.
Updates
Caribbean Airlines is launching four weekly non-stop services from Gatwick to Trinidad and Tobago on June 15. Flights will depart the UK on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday at 11.50. A three-times weekly Barbados service, connecting to Trinidad, launches later in the summer, meaning the airline will offer a daily service to Trinidad from the UK. ■
caribbean-airlines.com
Emirates is introducing a second daily non-stop flight from Glasgow to Dubai on June 1, increasing capacity by 199 seats. Both services will see the introduction of a first-class cabin. ■
emirates.com
Finnair is trialling bright-light headsets (pictured)on long-haul flights this month. The device, designed by Finnish company Valkee, channels bright light into the brain via the ear canal. Valkee claims it stimulates passengers and helps them better adapt to jetlag. The pilot service is offered to business-class passengers between Helsinki and Shanghai, and the device will be on sale from May. ■
finnairgroup.com
Bangkok has topped the flight consolidator’s seaches so far this year
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